I have received information on the following petition from two forum members and I have just signed it myself. A very special museum with a great deal of interest for forum members.

Subject: Urgent - TropenMuseum petition

Dear Friends of Tribal Art and Textiles,

We are at a crossroads where one of the great lights of non Western world heritage will be extinguished in name of budget cuts. This is not just a loss to the Netherlands but to the World and the Dutch Government should know we care! Please read below and add your name most urgently to this petition as described. Time is of the essence!

Amsterdam's Tropenmuseum (Museum of the Tropics) is one of Europe's leading ethnographic museums. Between its rich permanent collection, which reflects Dutch colonial history, and its vivid temporary exhibitions, visitors can glimpse the past, present and future of non-Western cultures around the globe. A visit to the Tropenmuseum is a journey through time and around the world. One gets to know widely different cultures and get an excellent impression of everyday live in the tropics. The museum accommodates eight permanent exhibitions and an ongoing series of temporary exhibitions, including both modern and traditional visual arts and photographic works. The museum's rooms, expertly guide people through Asia, Oceania, Africa and Latin America via authentic art, household and religious objects, photographs, music, film and interactive displays. The museum is also renowned for its efforts in child-friendly exhibitions. Tropenmuseum Junior offers an educational, inspiring and entertaining programme for kids (6 to 13 year olds), aimed at introducing them to different cultures.

As the public face of the Royal Tropical Institute, a foundation that sponsors the study of tropical cultures around the world, the Tropenmuseum is a grand institution, both inside and out. The museum was established in 1864 and it's beautiful brick building dates from 1926 and sits alongside the spacious greenery of Oosterpark. The Tropenmuseum is one of the most fascinating anthropological museums in the Netherlands, but is now in great danger.

URGENT please help the Tropenmuseum stay alive and open...- if it disappears nothing will ever be able to replace it !!

Send this email also to other people who would be willing to participate in signing this important petition

Please read the following information regarding the Tropenmuseum's current plight and sign the petition as requested. On the agenda is a Dutch government decision to give the Tropenmuseum funds to survive another two years, after which the Tropenmuseum will be have to merge with the Volkenkunde Museum in Leiden and the Africa Museum in Berg en Dal. If this does not happen the museum will be closed down !

The KIT Library and research and Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam's ethnographic and multicultural museum, is being hit hard by budget cuts. Over half of the staff will lose their jobs and the research library, filled with one of a kind publications from around the globe dated from as early as 1400 AD, will simply shut down. We need 40,000 signatures Dutch or Worldwide, to put the Tropenmuseum back on the government agenda and to tell the government that the public is not okay with this closing down of this universal institution!

I thought that I would add in a couple of comments here as I have quite a personal link to the Tropenmuseum and feel very strongly about wanting it to be able to continue.

In 2006 Sandra Niessen curated a fantastic exhibition of Batak textiles: 'Woven Worlds' at the museum. Click on the link to see some photos (from Sandra's website) taken at the exhibition. At the time I was researching Toba Batak textiles which I had, over about a year, purchased from a family from the Silindung valley. I contacted Janneke van Dijk, then the Curator of the Photograph Department at the Tropenmuseum, asking about any photos of 'my' family. Janneke - to whom I shall be forever grateful - put me in touch with Sandra. I was planning to make a three-day trip to Amsterdam to see the exhibit and, amazingly, this coincided with a special visit of Rita Bolland, the very well respected and loved former Curator of textiles at the Tropenmuseum, to have lunch with former colleagues and be taken around the exhibit by Sandra. Sandra very kindly included me in the party so I had the chance to meet Rita (who sadly died later that year) and I was able to tag along for this special viewing of what was a splendid display of Batak textiles. The Tropenmuseum has some very, very fine examples in their collection. The exhibition was extremely well staged and what a backdrop the Tropenmuseum provided for the textiles! I might add that my three-day trip to Amsterdam was solely to see the exhibition at the museum - it was the draw for my tourist euros!

I was back again at the Tropenmuseum in 2009 for the launch of Sandra's amazing book: Legacy in cloth: Batak textiles of Indonesia. The launch - at which I spoke - took place in the Tropenmuseum theatre with a reception afterwards.

I know that much of the world is going through dire economic times. It seems that 'culture' is high up in the firing line for budget cuts in many countries. There is much in the press at the moment about the downgrading of culture in government priorities in the UK. It is sad to find this is the same in other countries! I had hoped for better in the Netherlands! I would encourage forum members to 'sign' the petition set out in the post above to give an indication of how the Tropenmuseum is valued internationally.

We are at a crossroads where the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, one of the great lights of non Western world heritage may be extinguished in the name of austerity. This is not just a loss to the Netherlands but to the world, and the Dutch Government should know we care! Please add your name to the petition to save it. The petition closes on June 30, 2013, so time is of the essence!

Go to: http://petities.nl/petitie/hou-het-tropenmuseum-open. Fill in your name (Ik = Identity), city (Wonende te = City) and your email address, and click on Ondertekenen (Ondertekenen = Sign). In a few moments you will receive an email requesting your confirmation. Click on the first link in the message, a page opens with the data you entered earlier- Now just click the yellow button for Bevestigen (Bevestigen = Confirm). That's all.

Please help us save the Tropenmuseum - if it disappears nothing will ever be able to replace it!

The petition to save the Tropenmusem (which pulled close to 40.000 signatures) has actually helped: the Dutch government has today decided that the Tropenmuseum can stay open at least till 2017, though in the coming years it will need to merge with the Volkenkundig Museum in Leiden and the small Afrikamuseum in Berg and Dal. The price to be paid by the museum is that it will be cut lose from the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (which contains all the archives and the library), and that the collections become property of the state. All in all not a bad deal in a bad time. Hurray!

Yes, but the news is not as bad as it seems at first glance. It appears that the government will maintain all of the literature dating from before 1950 - which of course is the bulk, and contains most of the truly culturally and historically important material. The government has a legal obligation, it appears, to maintain this material. The rest will be offered to whoever wants to take care of it essentially. Whatever remains of the post-1950 material will be recycled, crude as that sounds. A horror story, all in all, but not as horrible as it could have been. So, if you want some of the post-1950 stuff, set up a foundation and offer to take care of it!

Well done, Julie! I have a feeling that especially the fairly high percentage of foreigner supporters must have made a difference, as it put the government to shame internationally. Around the globe, indeed.Sunshines on your path,Peter

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